Warhammer 40k: The Lylatian Crusade
by Epsilon Vindicare
Summary: When several companies of the Black Dragons space marine chapter are caught in a violent warpstorm. They find themselves cut off from the rest of the Imperium in a sector of the galaxy completely overrun by Xenos. Will the loyal servants of the Emperor put their hatreds aside and stand with them? They're space marines, take a guess.


**(Hey there all my dedicated readers; and hello to you new ones as well. I know that I said that I'd focus on my other story 'Revenge is Sweet' but I wanted to try my hand at this story that has been pestering me for days, and see if I can at least write it decently. Why did I use the Black Dragons chapter you ask? Well, because they're my favorite chapter. Well, tell me what you think when everything is all said and done. Warhammer belongs to Games Workshop, and StarFox belongs to Nintendo. ENJOY!**

The press room of the Cornerian City Hall was in an absolute fit to find out just what in the hell was going on. That General Pepper had been shot dead in the middle of the streets by an unknown sniper. Also, to make matters worse, the giant armored aliens that called themselves 'Space Marines' had broken the mutual defense agreement they had made weeks ago with the president and had declared, what they had called a purge on the entirety of the Lylat System. The small press room was packed wall to wall full of people who wanted to find the answers they were hoping to find.

Soon the room went dead silent as an old gray fox that was the mayor of Corneria City 'Grayson Carter' shuffled from across the room and up to the podium with a solemn look in his eyes, he shuffled a few papers and cleared his throat. Immediately afterwards every single reporter in the room began their barrage of questions in rapid succession; all yelled at the top of their lungs.

"WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF GENERAL PEPPER?!"

"WHAT ABOUT THE REPORTS OF THE HUMANS? WHAT DO WE KNOW OF THEIR INTENTIONS?!"

"IS THIS THE APOCALYPSE?!"

The old fox was attempting to speak but he just couldn't speak over the crowd of people. After a minute or so they all began to lessen the questions and quiet themselves, to which the fox was grateful for.

"Alright now I'm sure you are all anxious to know what exactly is going on right now. And don't worry, all will be explained very soon. But first I am happy to say that none of you are in any danger, the situation has been dealt with." And the sigh of relief has swept through the room; until one reporter spoke up.

"But what about General Pepper? There are confirmed reports that he has been murdered." The fox gave a slow nod.

"His killer has been found and the shooter is currently being brought to justice to await trial for his crimes." Nobody saw his faint facial twitch.

"But what about the numerousssssss reportsssss of the humansssssssss that we have been receiving?" Said a female black cobra entrenched in the back of the room.

"I can assure all of you, those reports are false and everything is currently under control. The humans are not a threat to us. I would ask that all of you go home have a good night's rest. Everything will be back to normal tom-" He was cut off as a guard was thrown through the back door, sailed across the room, and slammed right into the podium, snapping the unfortunate guard's spine in half.

And just like that, the entire room went dead silent as they stared at the lifeless corpse in front of them. The quietly panicking people froze in response when they heard a loud, rapidly increasing thumping noise coming from the outside of the door. Soon, a giant, thickly armored man covered in solid black armor with the painting of a white dragon head on the left pauldron, a picture of what looked to be another dragon, albeit smaller and showing the full body on its chest.

There was what looked to be a shark-like fin protruding from the top of its head, and was carrying a very large gun with a very large barrel in its hands. It turned its head around outside of the door and spoke in a voice that made their ears hurt.

"Brothers, purge them!" It stepped back to allow two more identical things to enter the room, heft their strange weapons and point them at all of them.

Nobody even had time to scream as they opened fire on the crowd.

These weapons they were using, they weren't like the weapons that came standard issue to the military, those where merely standardized laser weapons. These were vastly different. Limbs were severing on impact; blood was flying in every direction as one, sometimes two reporters fell with each shot fired. Several tried to duck and cover, but each who tried just wasn't fast enough.

A male border collie had his face blown off when a round hit him square in the muzzle. The same cobra girl was severed at the waist from where a round had found its mark in her hips. Several others heads were just completely gone, spraying the room with fresh crimson blood.

But as quickly as it had started, it ended. Only two of the room's fifty occupants weren't dead and lying in a pool of blood and severed organs, the mayor and the center cameraman: a rather young husky named 'Mark', barely out of his teens. As the monsters lowered their weapons and began to advance, the husky attempted to slip away, only to feel the cold steel of a gun press against the side of his head. He was only able to turn his head enough to just barely see who it was.

What he saw was different than the other aliens. It was shorter, rather the same size as any average Cornerian, not wrapped up in massive armor, rather inside what looked like a full black body-glove, a skull emblazoned near the top of its suit, there was a rifle on his back as long as his body, and it wore and a very intimidating and frightening looking red visor. Mark had heard from his brother in the Cornerian Peacekeepers that he was the only non-armored alien in the group; and that the others always referred to him as something called 'Vindicare'.

The man said nothing as it increased the pressure of the, what he thought was a pistol, to the side of his head, Mark gulped and returned to his original position near the camera, the pistol never leaving his head as the boy lost all hope of escape.

Soon, they both turned to witness yet another one of these hulking monstrosities step through the smoking ruins of the press room. This one was obviously the one leading them from the extra additions to his armor. His was bigger and bulkier from the others, and there was what looked like a broadsword with multiple serrated teeth on the end, there was a long flowing black as night cloak on the back of his armor, and he also had his helmet removed.

Just looking at this man terrified him even more than he already was. Mark knew that these were the humans, but this was the first time that he had gotten any sort of look at them up close, and not just watching the news. Every time that they appeared on the nightly news, they were always so angry and arrogant; always talking about their Emperor and mankind's destiny to rule the stars. One of them had almost strangled a reporter to death on live TV when he made an insult to their Emperor.

He appeared to be some sort of lizard type specie at first glance. But yet, he could tell that the overlapping in his black skin weren't scales, they were too shallow to be. His eyes were a complete blood red, and he could see long fangs from the sneer that matched his helmet. When he reached the boy, the man reattached his helm and bent down to his level and spoke in a tone that was absolutely terrifyingly harsh as well as synthetic.

"Is this broadcasting?" Mark couldn't find the words to speak he was so afraid, he just couldn't tear his face away from this things deep crimson tear slit optics; He could only nod as fast as his head would allow. "And how far does this broadcast reach?" The small boy still couldn't find the words to speak; his jaw was locked up in terror as he felt a warm trickle run down his leg.

The large man appeared to be getting more impatient with his lack of an answer. "SPEAK OR DIE!" Well that did it; Mark suddenly found his voice, although a lot weaker than usual.

"A-a-a-a-all of Corneria sir, please don't hurt me." The boy spoke in all but a whisper. The large imposing figure stood back at his full length.

"Good, then I don't have to kill you…yet. Keep recording!" The boy felt his heart sink as he listened to his words. He now knew he wouldn't live through this. He would never see his parents again, he couldn't tell Jessica how he felt about her, and he couldn't join the Cornerian Defense force like he always dreamed of.

The menacing figure had made his way to the top of the podium and was looking down upon the rapidly bleeding, and legless Grayson, who looked up to the armored man with disbelief.

"What are you doing?! I thought we had reached an agreement with you space marines." He managed to groan out weakly, Grayson was spitting up blood at this point as he attempted to stop the bleeding. The space marine merely locked his gun to his waist as he stood over him.

"Your kind has outlived it's usefulness xeno; we are merely carrying out the Emperor's will and cleansing you filth from the galaxy." Mark could feel his jaw slowly dropping as he saw something extending from the space marine's armor; it was a blade, long and menacing in its appearance.

But there was something else about this blade; it looked too long to fit inside of just his armor so it must have come from somewhere else. Mark wasn't sure his jaw could sink any lower as he realized that it came from inside his arm, and actually. that looked a little off-color for a sword. It looked more to him like; bone. After bringing his bone-blade up he swiftly buried it inside the Mayor's head.

He then turned to the camera "Xenos of Corneria, I am Great Dragon Romero Raptoris: Chapter Master of the Black Dragons. The acts that you have witnessed here are merely the beginning.' He sweeps his large hand around the room to indicate the massacre. 'The time has come for us to rid this sector of the galaxy of your tainted existence. Every last one of you shall be purged in fire and bone. There is no escape; there is no hope; for any of you.

The actions of your precious 'Star Fox' team have hastened your kind's demise. Their insults and hostile actions towards us have sealed your sector's fate. There will be no mercy given to any of you filth. Every last man, women, and child will be purged just like these filth." He nodded at the Vindicare assassin who was pointing the pistol at Mark's head, "Kill it." With that, the assassin pulled the trigger and put a bullet in Mark's head. Just as the husky let go of the camera and began his free-fall toward the floor, the assassin grabbed the camera, hefted it onto his shoulder, and continued to film.

"So cower xenos, cower and pray to your false gods for the salvation that shall never come for you; the only thing that comes for you is the Emperor's judgment; for we are the fury of the Emperor; and we shall be the death of you all." With that, the space marine came forward, grabbed the camera, and crushed it in his Ceramite covered hands. After dropping the remains of the device, he turned towards the rest of his brothers. "Come; let us regroup with the rest of our brothers and finally begin the long awaited purge of this foul place." After which, they heard a massive engine roar, as a Thunderhawk pulled up outside the window of building; the massive ship began to open the front hatch to allow them to leap in for extraction. Romero leaped through the window and into the deck of the ship, as did the rest of his battle-brothers, with the Vindicare assassin following shortly after.

**(6 Terran weeks earlier) **

The Reclusiam of the _Dragon's Flame_ was a sight to behold, and rightly so. This was a space marine's primary place of worship to the God-Emperor in between deployments; being able to hold a full five companies of Astartes while they listened to their chaplain's holy sermons of the Emperor. Being the fleet based chapter that they were, the Black Dragons left out no details on any of their ships, and this battle barge was no exception. Pillars of stone spread all across the area, with tapestry detailing their chapter's greatest triumphs hung above each pillar.

There was the foul Tyranids of Hive Fleet Kraken, the Pirate Eldar of the Bladed Lotus, the Greenskin pigs of Vestilla IV, and the Slaaneshi daemonettes and cultists of the Hive world Kablin. Then, there was the most recent banner in the room: the defeat of Chaos in the Antagonis campaign, and the destruction of the 'Swords of Epiphany' Chaos warband. All with a proud son of Vulkan standing proudly atop the corpses of the enemy with weapons raised victoriously.

Looking towards the end of the room, there was a massive stone carving of a dragon the size of a Thunderhawk, curled at the front of the rooms, poised and ready to strike down its enemies like the apex predator it was. Below that there was the massive golden Imperial Aquila the same size and likely the same mass as a Land Raider.

The Black Dragons may have been a part of the so-called 'cursed' founding, and the others may not see their gene-seed's mutation as the blessing it was, but they would endure, they would prove themselves worthy of the Emperor a thousand times over if need be; and then they would continue to purge the enemies of man, like they always have been.

Almost half of the Black Dragons chapter had come aboard this battle barge for prayer and briefing for their next deployment: all of 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 7th company were there to bare witness to the acts. The chapter's strike cruiser the _Crushing Talons_ was docked along side to allow 7th company to board it's battle brothers for the sermon.

The added presence of the veteran 1st company did wonders for their already high spirits, and with their chapter's Terminators and Venerable Dreadnaughts only did even more. This was a historic event for their chapter, as the last time their chapter had gathered in such numbers was during the third war for Armageddon. They were eager to throw themselves back into the field and shed blood in the name of the Emperor and of their father: Vulkan.

The Black Dragons 1st company chaplain: Galox Adon had just finished leading the Astartes in prayer and motioned for another to join him on the top deck. The leader of the Black Dragons, their Great Dragon: Romero Raptoris, the greatest of them all, who gestured for their silence. Romero had led the Black Dragons for two hundred standard years now every since their last Great Dragon's death at the hands of the filthy heretics of the Crimson Slaughter. He was the strongest and wisest leader that had ever graced the chapter since their founding. With the relic two-handed chainsword passed down to each Great Dragon as they go named the _Dragon's Teeth_. His bravery and ferocity in battle was one that all respected, any one of the chapter would gladly give up their lives fighting beside him.

"Brothers, I bring you all in this day to bring you great news. Today we have been given an opportunity to once again prove ourselves to the Emperor and bring death to his enemies; and to redeem ourselves for the machinations of the 'Disciples of Purity' of 2nd company." This brought a scowl to every last marine's face. The last captain of 2nd company 'Toharan' had let an agent of the Inquisition trick him into thinking that his chapter's mutation was corrupt and almost brought an end to 2nd company, if it hadn't been for their new captain 'Volos'.

"But I have called you all not to reminisce on past failures; but to show you what we can, what we WILL accomplish in his eyes.' His bulky Terminator armor shined in the lighting of the ship as he waved his hands around and boomed his voice over the rest. 'The hive world of 'Cathilos' has called out for our aid. It seems that they have built their home on a Xenos Eldar Maiden world. The mortal defenders of the hive world have stood defiantly in the Eldar's call for their withdrawal and have chosen to stand and fight and face the fury of their misbegotten kind.

And so, they face a large force of the Craftworld Biel-tan approaching in massive numbers. The humans of this settlement cannot face Xenos of that number for they are too few and the hive is too new to have substantial presence there and have asked for help, and we have seen fit to grant them such. And so it falls to us to bring the Eldar to their judgment. We shall purge the Xeno scum in fire and bone, and we prove we are still his loyal dragons in his eyes." He unsheathes his left bone-blade and raises it in the air. "FOR THE EMPEROR!" And every last marine in the room joined in the chant.

Soon, the men of the Black Dragons chapter would be drawn into a conflict far more vast then they thought possible.

**(A/N) So please, tell me what you think. Please, if I messed up with the lore in some way, please tell me, and I'll fix it. Either way, I won't be focusing on this story primarily. I want to get a little farther in my other story 'Revenge is Sweet' before I delve deeper into the story here, but I won't completely ignore it I promise you. Either way, have a wonderful night.**


End file.
